Prayer is not asking for what you think you want, but asking to be changed in ways you can't imagine. Kathleen Norris More Quotes by Kathleen Norris More Quotes From Kathleen Norris If grace is so wonderful, why do we have such difficulty recognizing and accepting it? Maybe it's because grace is not gentle or made-to-order. It often comes disguised as loss, or failure, or unwelcome change. Kathleen Norris grace loss order Just the knowledge that a good book is waiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier. Kathleen Norris happiness long book I wonder if children don't begin to reject both poetry and religion for similar reasons, because the way both are taught takes the life out of them. Kathleen Norris taught children way For grace to be grace, it must give us things we didn't know we needed and take us places where we didn't know we didn't want to go. As we stumble through the crazily altered landscape of our lives, we find that God is enjoying our attention as never before. Kathleen Norris grace attention giving Not money, or success, or position or travel or love makes happiness,--service is the secret. Kathleen Norris position secret But hope has an astonishing resilience and strength. Its very persistence in our hearts indicates that it is not a tonic for wishful thinkers but the ground on which realists stand. Kathleen Norris persistence resilience heart We shortchange ourselves by regarding religious faith as a matter of intellectual assent. This is a modern aberration; the traditional Christian view is far more holistic, regarding faith as a whole-body experience. Sometimes it is, as W.H. Auden described it, 'a matter of choosing what is difficult all one's days as if it were easy. Kathleen Norris religious christian views In spite of the cost of living, it's still popular. Kathleen Norris witty life funny Disconnecting from change does not recapture the past. It loses the future. Kathleen Norris change inspirational past This is a God who is not identified with the help of a dictionary but through a relationship. Kathleen Norris dictionary helping But it is daily tasks, daily acts of love and worship that serve to remind us that the religion is not strictly an intellectual pursuit, and these days it is easy to lose sight of that as, like our society itself, churches are becoming more politicized and polarized. Christian faith is a way of life, not an impregnable fortress made up of ideas; not a philosophy; not a grocery list of beliefs. Kathleen Norris daily-tasks christian philosophy Before you begin a thing, remind yourself that difficulties and delays quite impossible to foresee are ahead. If you could see them clearly, naturally you could do a great deal to get rid of them but you can't. You can only see one thing clearly and that is your goal. Form a mental vision of that and cling to it through thick and thin. Kathleen Norris delay vision goal I sense that striving for wholeness is, increasingly, a countercultural goal, as fragmented people make for better consumers. Kathleen Norris strive goal people The Christian religion asks us to put our trust not in ideas, and certainly not in ideologies, but in a God Who was vulnerable enough to become human and die, and Who desires to be present to us in our ordinary circumstances. Kathleen Norris christian desire ideas Acedia is a danger to anyone whose work requires great concentration and discipline yet is considered by many to be of little practical value. The world doesn't care if I write another word, and if I am to care, I have to summon all my interior motivation and strength. Kathleen Norris discipline motivation writing We can't give our children the future, strive though we may to make it secure. But we can give them the present. Kathleen Norris future giving children Only Christ could have brought us all together, in this place, doing such absurd but necessary things. Kathleen Norris absurd together christ Like faith, marriage is a mystery. The person you're committed to spending your life with is known and yet unknown, at the same time remarkably intimate and necessarily other. The classic seven-year itch may not be a case of familiarity breeding ennui and contempt, but the shock of having someone you thought you knew all too well suddenly seem a stranger. When that happens, you are compelled to either recommit to the relationship or get the hell out. There are many such times in a marriage. Kathleen Norris seven-years classic may Peace - that was the other name for home. Kathleen Norris sweet-home names home Laundry, liturgy and women's work all serve to ground us in the world, and they need not grind us down. Our daily tasks, whether we perceive them as drudgery or essential, life-supporting work, do not define who we are as women or as human beings. Kathleen Norris daily-tasks essentials needs
